The design of floor covering systems for use in industrial environments, e.g. plant and laboratory facilitites, is very important because they are exposed to a wide variety of chemicals such as organic solvents, oils, cleaning solutions, and organic and inorganic acids all of which can cause errosion thereby necessitating replacement of the floor covering. Their replacement can be expensive because of the cost of the ingredients as well as the labor typically involved.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,265,957 discloses a conventional flooring covering system composed of a multi-layered covering of epoxy resin, fiber glass reinforced epoxy resin, an epoxy resin containing filler material, and a sealer coat of a polyurethane resin. While this flooring system has general chemical resistance, its acid resistance could be improved. Furthermore, because of the multi-layered aspect of the floor covering, it can be expensive as well as time consuming to install.
One product marketed in the past as a floor covering contained asphalt (gilsonite and high oil), fiber glass, clay-cellulose fiber, and a relatively large amount of limestone. Whereas the foregoing was not a multi-layered system, the floor covering was not acid resistant.
Therefore, what is needed is a floor covering which has good chemical (including acid) resistance, is relatively inexpensive, and is easy to replace.